BELLEVUE, WA – While Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca advocates handing out driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, it would be nice if he applied the same liberal principle to the issuance of concealed carry permits, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today . . .

“This is simply appalling,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Baca is less interested in the personal safety of California citizens than he is in the personal convenience of illegal aliens who shouldn’t even be in this country. No wonder that Baca and his department have been sued over the concealed carry permit issue.”

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s own policy on the issuance of licenses enabling private citizens to carry concealed weapons is blunt: “The Department’s overriding policy is that no concealed weapons license should be granted merely for the personal convenience of the applicant.”

“On the one hand,” Gottlieb observed, “Sheriff Baca wants to make life easier for people in this country illegally, but on the other hand, he makes life more difficult, and perhaps even dangerous, for citizens who were born here, or have become naturalized through legal channels. What does this policy say to law-abiding legal immigrants who have jumped through all the hoops, become good members of the community, and who may operate small businesses and worry about being robbed?

“What does this say to native Californians, or citizens who moved to the Golden State from some other part of the country,” he continued. “What Baca’s policy says is that your rights as citizens take a back seat to the comfort and convenience of people in this country illegally. That’s worse than being treated like second-class citizens. For Baca, your citizenship and your civil rights apparently don’t matter at all.”

“Baca’s first responsibility should be to the citizens who pay his salary,” Gottlieb said, “and that includes citizens who wish to exercise their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for personal protection. If Sheriff Baca can’t tell the difference, then perhaps he should leave public service and find another career.”

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Robert Farago is the Publisher of The Truth About Guns (TTAG). He started the site to explore the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns.

Chief Baca’s main argument is that issuing licenses to illegals will cut hit-and-run accidents? So it was true all along that illegals were committing a lot of those? Ha! Told you so! They also commit a fair number of shoot-and-runs, Baca. So give them CCW permits! Faultless logic, no?

This sort of selectivity is not limited to the LA County Sheriff’s office. Timothy Geithner tells us that being an American citizen is a privilege, so “rich people” (meaning anyone who has an extra penny to give the government) must pay more for that privilege. However, when it comes to illegal immigrants, or almost anyone who wants to come in, it’s not a privilege but an irrevocable right.

1) Police chiefs and Sheriffs are politicians. The former are appointed by politicians and so have to reflect the opinions of those who appoint them. The later have to run for public office and therefore must reflect the public opinion. In a place like LA County, the political and public opinion is very anti-gun (same in NY, New Orleans, etc.)

2) On the larger scale, this is another symptom of the “us vs. them” mentality that has infected US law enforcement since the beginning of the drug war. Cops have been trained to believe that they are special and have been endowed with special rights, privileges, and protections that normal everyday civilians don’t have. So police brass fights to maintain those special privileges. They think only cops can carry guns, because they are just better then the rust of us. So when we ask for the same right, to carry a gun, we are treading on the toes of law enforcement and saying to them: “you are not so special, I want the right to defend myself just like you.” What is the very nickname of the NYPD: “New York’s Finest.” There is no better example of the elevation of police above the populous than that.

Having lived in the L.A. Metropolitan area for 55 years, I can tell you that most of the illegal immigrant drivers cannot afford Car Insurance, so giving them Legal Driver’s Licenses won’t reduce Hit and Runs. It will likely increase them. There’s no requirement to have Car Insurance to get a Driver’s License in Kalifornia. There is a requirement to have car insurance to register an automobile, but that is easily gotten around.
Also, since being an illegal immigrant puts you at risk of Deportation, I am pretty sure most illegals would balk at signing up with the State for a Driver’s License for fear of being found-out by INS. Knowing the L.A. Politicians and Public Officials, they are probably banking on that to make it appear to their immigrant constituents that they are doing something positive for the immigrant communities. Typical.

The CCRKBA should focus on the right to keep and bear arms, not on immigration reform. This can only serve to alienate people would otherwise be supportive of their cause. People like me. I am a hardliner on gun rights, I believe in constitutional carry, no limits on how many guns of what type your purchase, no limits on how many rounds your magazines can hold, or where you buy your guns (gun store, gun show, some dude), I even support the right of convicted felons to defend themselves, their families, and their homes. In short I read “Shall not be infringed” as plain text. I do not want any gun rights group to have an opinion on anything else. I do not care what the NRA thinks about the war on drugs, or what Gun Owners of America thinks about Farm Subsidies – nor do I care about what TTAG thinks about Foreign Policy. When a single issue organization steps out of the confines of that issue, or tries to tie it to another controversial issue they are doing everyone a disservice.

The CCRKBA is saying it’s an outrage that this sheriff thinks illegal aliens should get drivers licences but law abiding citizens shouldn’t get concealed carry permits. It’s a valid criticism and not outside their brief. These two issues may seem unrelated but the link is this sheriff.

Oh, it gets even better than that. Both Beck and Baca have publicly stated and claimed in litigation that they have restrictive CCW policies because “more guns equals more crime.” Well, if that’s true, isn’t it also true that “more cars equals more accidents”? And if we don’t issue licenses to illegals, there will be fewer cars, right? I mean, RiIGHT?!?! The hypocrisy is overwhelming.

“What does this say to native Californians, or citizens who moved to the Golden State from some other part of the country,” he continued. “What Baca’s policy says is that your rights as citizens take a back seat to the comfort and convenience of people in this country illegally.

….and the Californians keep electing fools such as this.
The granola state of fruits, nuts, and flakes.

If we believe in changing thing at the lowest (read local) level, citizens can elect a pro-2A (CCW) Sheriff.

I would love CA to become a shall-issue state, but at the State level, that isn’t going to happen – it’s not even in our Constitution. So Los Angeles citizens need to endorse, support, and campaign for a local sheriff that sees the issue as they do.

Baca has an elitist attitude. The second amendment not give give circumstances where an American citizens can and can not own or carry firearms. “The right to keep and bear arms SHALL NOT be infringed”. That’s all we need to know, and baca as well.

One good thing about giving them licenses is that we could gain a more fair number of how many of these dirt-bags are actually living and working in this country illegally. However, there would need to be some way of verifying that the information they provide the DMV with is accurate. We would need to do biometrics on them all and if I am not mistaken, they would also need social security numbers to get a license. This would require your tax money to do background checks. How could we verify their age, place of birth or true country of orgin? These are dishonest people who lack integrity. It would take your tax money to do background checks. Also some Al Quieda guy could learn spanish come in say he is from Guatamala and get a license to drive a car. Why don’t we just give Al Quieda licenses while we are at it. After he blows up a building we will think it was some guy named Pedro from Guatamala who did it. We will turn our war on terrorism efforts erraneously on Guatemala. Don’t erroneously fight the war on terrorism in Guatemala; don’t give illegals drivers licenses.